In this episode Dr. Lauren Williams, Patient Safety Manager at AHN Wexford Hospital, shares valuable insights from her hospital's efforts to improve sepsis care. Speaking with host Shannon Hale, Lauren highlights the critical need for enhanced compliance with SEP-1 sepsis care bundles, tackling challenges like high readmission rates and resource constraints. She discusses innovative strategies, such as providing real-time feedback to emergency departments and inpatient teams to drive improvement. 

Guest speaker:

Host:

Show Notes:

[1:12] Dr. Lauren Williams discusses entering Vizient’s Performance Improvement Collaborative to understand how other healthcare systems are addressing sepsis challenges

[1:59] Goals for joining the collaborative and information shared across the board

[3:13] The importance of using data to improve outcomes for sepsis patients and how it leads to meaningful process changes

[4:35] Dr. Williams explains how her hospital was able to overcome significant barriers and navigate challenges despite working with limited resources

[5:13] Celebrating some of the greatest successes, including improved compliance, reduced readmission rates and lower mortality rates

Links | Resources:

Dr. Lauren Williams’ email: [email protected] 

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More than 200 medical journals identified climate change as the greatest global threat.  In this podcast, UW Medicine describes how focusing on environmental sustainability improved their vendor selections, supply chain flow, patient care and saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Guest speakers: 

Gabriella Henkels

Louise Simpson, MHA

Host: 

Show Notes:

[1:34] UW Medicine’s green team and their purpose

[3:45] Determining environmental sustainability opportunities

[6:00] What teams to include and how to get leadership buy-in

[7:45] Establishing goals

[8:30] Environmental sustainability success stories

[12:50] Lessons learned

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

To learn more about Vizient’s Environmental Sustainability program contact: [email protected]

Another podcast on this same topic: Go Green: Why your healthcare system should be engaged in environmental sustainability: https://knowledgeonthego.podbean.com/?s=go%20green

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Hospitals are in the business of improving care and want to keep patients safe and have a satisfied workforce. More creative staffing models are emerging, and hospitals are focusing on more advanced training of non-licensed nursing personnel (unlicensed associates) to perform tasks previously relegated to nurses. Nurses have the capability and responsibility to delegate. With effective teamwork, patient outcomes can improve as nurses are freed to work at the highest level of their education and experience.

Guest speaker:

Host:

Show Notes:

[01:21] Nursing Operations at Unity Health

[02:00] Comprehensive delegation training: components and oversight

[03:50] Putting the training program together

[05:41] Tools and sessions

[08:07] Advice to other organizations about nurse delegation

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go:

[email protected]

Amber’s email: [email protected]

Michelle’s email: [email protected]

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Chronic illnesses present a significant challenge to our healthcare system, straining resources and impacting patient quality of life. One innovative approach to tackling this issue is the community health worker model, a strategy that empowers individuals to take control of their health and navigate complex healthcare systems more effectively.

Today, we are exploring the creation of the model and how to create sustainability. Vanessa Saylor, systems director of health equity at Main Line Health in Philadelphia joins us to discuss her work on building the community health worker model.

Guests:

Vanessa Saylor, Ed.D, MSW, LSW, CCM

System Director, Health Equity

Main Line Health

Host:

Margaret Rudisill, RN, BSN, MS-HQS

Senior PI Program Director

Vizient

Show Notes:

[01:21 – 02:24]  The moment Vanessa realized that a community health worker model could make a significant difference in managing chronic illnesses

[02:25 – 03:58]  Gaining buy-in from stakeholders

[03:59 – 05:23]  Initial challenges you faced when trying to implement the community health worker model and overcoming them

[05:24 – 07:17]  Most effective strategies fostering trust between the community health worker and the patients

[07:18 – 08:32]  Data collected and analyzed to demonstrate the worth and sustainability of the program

[08:33 – 09:47]  Advice for other organizations looking to build a successful community health worker model

For more information, email [email protected]

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The pharmacy revenue cycle is a multi-phase continuous process, which requires ongoing collaboration across many disciplines. The process starts at pre-registration and continues through payment reconciliation. Steven Loborec, associate director of Pharmacy at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center joins host Jim Lichauer to discuss the details of his program.

Guest:

Moderator:

Show Notes:

[00:45 – 02:34] Overview of pharmacy revenue cycle process and areas where tOSU Wexler Medical Center is engaged

[02:35 – 04:10] Addressing the Charge Master

[04:11 – 09:14] Finding new and additional revenue streams

[09:15 – 13:31] Identifying medications or sites of care opportunities that generate greatest margins

[13:32 – 14:14] Lessons learned

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

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Healthcare organizations across the nation strive to become highly reliable organizations.  Vizient defines an high reliability organization as an organization that has experienced significant success in avoiding harm within an environment of high complexity and risk.  This podcast discusses strategies and emerging practices identified in Vizient’s high reliability culture of safety collaborative.  Joining in the discussion to share their insights on how to improve your health organization’s culture of safety is collaborative participant, Caryn Douma, Corporate Director of Patient Safety Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Michael Leonard, Senior Principal at Vizient and an High Reliability expert.   

Speakers: 

Michael Leonard, MD

Show notes:

[2:08] Essential elements for High Reliability

[5:00] Senior leader engagement and feedback

[7:00] How to close the loop with frontline staff at a large, comprehensive, academic medical center

[8:30] Making leadership rounds meaningful and positive

[11:40] Personal accountability and teamwork helps with the patient care tasks reliably getting done

[13:36] How to set your staff up for success rather than punishing them for results that didn’t come out as intended

[[14:25] Creating a culture where staff feel comfortable speaking out

[17:45] Psychological safety

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

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Imagine the stress of returning to school, following a psychiatric hospitalization for the pediatric patient, their family and caregivers. Dr. Sarah Edwards, director for the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Courtney Vaughn, school transition Specialist at the University of Maryland join join host Laura Hoffman, Sr. Performance Improvement Program Director, to explain how their school transitions program helps these patients and families adjust to that transition.

Guests:

Courtney Vaughan, MSW, LCSW-C 

Moderator:

Show Notes:

[00:52 – 02:54]  Overview of the school transitions program

[02:55 – 03:55]  What is a family connector and how they provide emotional support

[03:56 – 05:30]  Program elements that help youth to stay on track

[05:31 – 07:57]  Impressive outcomes of this program

[07:58 – 09:16]  What this program has meant to them from a personal or a professional standpoint

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

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Artificial Intelligence has been helping improve healthcare for years, but just recently, there has been a seismic shift in capability, buy-in and attention. Healthcare systems across the country are looking into safely and effectively using AI to improve observed mortality. On this episode, we examine how Intermountain Health is effectively using AI for their patients.

Guest speaker:

Sathya Vijayakumar, MS, MBA

Senior Manager, Clinical Operations

Intermountain Health

Moderator:

Shannon Sullivan, MHA

Fellow

Performance Improvement

Vizient

Show Notes:

[01:22] Opportunity to benchmark observed mortality

[02:11] Using AI to track observed mortality

[06:16] Details on the process used at Intermountain Health

[08:37] How Intermountain piloted and fostered adoption of the initiative – outcomes

[12:09] Barriers to implementation

[13:43] Will never replace clinical judgment

[14:43] Recommendations and takeaways

[07:02] Next steps

Links | Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

Shannon’s email: [email protected]

Sathya’s email: [email protected]

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Hospital-acquired infections affect every health organization. These infections may be caused by a variety of pathogens including bacterial, viruses, fungi and parasites. They can lead to increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Joining us to discuss their efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infections at SSM Health are Dr. Shephali Wulff, System Vice President of Quality and Safety and Chief Quality Officer and Chris Zirges, System Director of Infection Prevention.

Guest speakers:

Chris Zirges, DNP, APRN-BC, CIC, FAPIC

Host:

Show Notes:

[:56] SSM Health infection prevention overview

[1:35] Current infection disease collaboration between four teams: infection disease physicians, infection prevention, microbiology and infection disease pharmacists

[2:43] Partnering with continuous improvement team to put hospital-acquired infection guidelines into a change package

[3:05] Over a span of two years, efforts led to 60% infection reduction for three targeted infections

[3:20] Challenges with standardizing the work

[4:15] Standardizing process structure and change framework

[7:00] Process checks to support freezing and/or unfreezing behavior for validity and sustainability

[10:00] Training modules and tools

[11:45] Focus strategy for monitoring and reducing other hospital-acquired infections  

[14:40] Different processes are needed for patients that are entering care in different ways: i.e., elective vs emergent surgery vs. in-patient surgery

[15:20] Lessons learned

Links | Resources:

For more information: [email protected]

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Sepsis has long been a challenge for healthcare organizations. It is a leading cause of morbidity, readmissions and mortality. As a reaction to an infection, sepsis can spread quickly, progress to septic shock and eventually shut down organ systems. Catching it early is a priority and the basis for much of a hospital’s approach to the disease. This episode features a healthcare expert who shares her organization’s approach to sepsis, as part of a Vizient collaborative, that has resulted in significant reduction in the disease.

Guest speaker:

Host:

Show Notes:

[01:14] Rationale for participating in the collaborative

[01:53] Goal of participation

[02:23] Increasing compliance with the sepsis order set

[03:11] Use of sepsis sidebar

[04:06] Barriers to implementation

[04:46] Outcomes from collaborative

[05:45] A takeaway from the collaborative

[07:02] Next steps

Links| Resources:

Contacting Knowledge on the Go: [email protected]

Shannon’s email: [email protected]

Leanne’s email: [email protected]

CDC sepsis website: https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/what-is-sepsis.html

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